Minerva's Seventh Year
by hpfanJade
Summary: Minerva McGonagall was top of her class at Hogwarts. Even though she never significantly changed the wizarding world while she was in her teens, she still had a very interesting life. Read about the adventures she experienced in her seventh year at Hogwarts.
1. Chapter 1

"Robert, Malcolm, come _on_" I shout at my two younger brothers, who are still quarreling about who won in their race to get to the platform. Platform 9 ¾ that is, where we await the Hogwarts Express. Now you may be thinking_ 'Hogwarts? What a funny word!' _But I must assure you that Hogwarts in the name of a place that is ancient, dangerous, wonderful, magical, and above all it is my school. My name is Minerva McGonagall, and I am a witch.

On the train I search for Cassandra. She is my best friend at Hogwarts. She looks relieved when I tap her shoulder, she must have been searching for me too. We sit down and get reacquainted. I haven't seen her all summer because my family went on a very long vacation to the tropics, I can't remember exactly where. I tell her all about it. She seems most interested in the food that I ate; you just don't get fresh coconuts in Scotland. The trip to Hogwarts passes by quickly as we chat and watch the countryside go by.

Once at Hogwarts we find seats at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. I am euphoric; Hogwarts is like a safe haven for me where I don't have to hide. Except that Arnold Willard is sitting beside me. He isn't that bad, he just has a reputation for playing tricks and doing things for his own amusement. When he catches me looking at him he grins. His teeth are perfect. He has very fair skin and hair, with vivid green eyes. He is quite handsome, but that contributes to his reputation. He has made so many girls fall for him, but he hasn't even acknowledged a single one. "Hey Minnie!" he says with a wink. He knows that I do not like to be called Minnie.

"Hello Arnie." I retort. My hand rests on the table. I had forgotten that it was there until he touches it. He has long, slender fingers to match his long, slender body. I am frozen with shock. My hand tingled where he touched it. I am glad that Cassandra isn't paying attention. She is talkative and a bad secret-keeper. Not that anything is happening… right? I glance over at her. She is having an intense conversation with a fourth year about how her dirty blond hair compliments her brown eyes. Cassandra is very pretty; all of the boys in our year –which is seventh- think so. My attention snaps back to myself though, when Arnold touches my hand again. I look at him and he looks back. My heart is beating fast and my breathing is shallow. I open my mouth to ask him something, although I have no idea what, but then the headmaster clears his throat.

I listen to the usual speech and clap for the sorting, but my mind is elsewhere. It lingers on the feeling in my stomach and the look that was in Arnold's eyes when he touched me. I am overreacting. That was nothing. I will not be like the superficial girls who have chased Arnold around since day one. I must not be one of them. Before I know it the sorting is over and the food appears. This is my final year at Hogwarts and I still have no idea where the food comes from. Maybe some time I should ask. The feast looks delicious, but I eat little. I'm not quite sure why.

_Quick Author's note:_

_Hello everyone! This is my very first fanfic, so I hope you like it. Whether or not you like it please review because I appreciate constructive criticism._

_- Lucy Pensee_


	2. Chapter 2 -Transfiguration

In Transfiguration Professor Dumbledore asked who could turn a toad into a bird. My hand shot right up into the air. He asked me to perform the spell in front of the class, so I did. My eyes skimmed over the faces of my peers. I tried not to react when I saw that Arnold was in this class. My palms began to sweat. _Concentrate Minerva! You know this spell! _I told myself. Dumbledore gave me a quick nod of encouragement. I cleared my throat.

"Rubetavis," I say and tap the toad with my wand. Instantly the toad transfigures into a small green parakeet and settles on a rafter near the ceiling. I stare at the floor as I return to my seat. Cassandra smiles at me and gives me thumbs up. She knows that I have a talent for transfiguration; in fact, she often says that I am Dumbledore's prodigy.

After class I stay back to help Dumbledore get the bird down from the ceiling. He is not very young; it is much easier for me. Without being asked, I grab a stepstool from under a desk. I get as high as I can and point my wand. I repeat the counter spell and catch the toad when it falls. I turn to return it to it's cage, only to meet and pair of silver-blue eyes under half-moon glasses. Dumbledore straightens to his full height and peers down at me fondly. "Thank you Minerva." He says. I can't read his expression. A normal person would have looked happy, content even. But Albus Dumbledore is no normal person.

Dumbledore summons me to his office. I follow him through a few corridors and up a flight of steps. We stop in front of a blank stone wall. He mutters an incantation so quietly that I can't tell what he said and a door that was not there a moment ago swings open. His office is small and cluttered, yet organized. There are books and gadgets, papers and quills. There is no extra space on any surface. The top of his desk could have been covered in blinking eyes and I wouldn't be able to see enough to notice them. I like it though, even though I am a very tidy and orderly person. I notice too late that my mouth and eyes are wide open. He noticed too.

"You like it?" Dumbledore asks. I shut my mouth and nod my head. I notice a large bird on a perch in the corner. Blow it is what looks like… a tray of ashes? The bird is red and orange with piercing eyes. "That is a phoenix bird, Minerva. Extremely talented birds, phoenixes are. They can carry immensely heavy loads, its tears have healing powers, and when it's time for them to die they burst into flames and are reborn from the ashes." He must have noticed my curiosity. Blimey, Dumbledore is so observant. It's like those stormy eyes can see through your soul.

After I talked with Dumbledore about this and that I ran into Cassandra in the corridor. I told her that I wasn't hungry for dinner, but asked her to bring me a slice of pumpkin pie. She agreed and waltzed off in her bouncy way. I wasn't very hungry. Instead of going to dinner I wandered around the school. It was so quiet without children everywhere. There were so many little nooks and crannies of Hogwarts that it would take forever to explore them all. I'm positive that there are places that have been untouched for hundreds of years. I would love to find those places, to I simply walk around with my mind looking for secrets. As if some unseen force pulled me, I ended up in a broom closet. Illuminating my wand, I look around. I don't see another door besides the one that I came through, but I do see a door knob. It is made of tarnished brass and has a large keyhole in the center. On the floor I see small pieces of fractured metal. This must have once been the key, and someone must have destroyed it. Did they really think that using magic to break the key would discourage a curious wizard who could easily fix it?

"Reparo," I say and the key is whole. I pick it up, noticing the weight and the coolness that comes from years in a stone-walled closet. I carefully insert it into the key hole and turn it. The entire wall swings out to reveal …

_Oooh Cliffie! Sorry about that, I couldn't resist! I hope you enjoy and I will try to have the next chapter up as soon as I can._

_-Lucy Pensee_


	3. Chapter 3- The Passageway

The entire wall swings out to reveal a hallway. It is dark and I can't see where it leads. I suppose I might've been frightened if I wasn't a Gryffindor, but I am. I illuminate my wand with a faint whisper of "Lumos."

I slowly and carefully make my way down the hallway, one hand on a wall the whole time. The ceiling is low, barely six inches above my head. I wonder how whoever built this got around. Perhaps wizards were smaller back then. The hall twists and curves a bit, but I reach no forks. I think I won't have a problem finding my way back, but you never know when you are in a school full of moving staircases. I see a faint light up ahead. How long have I been walking? It feels like hours, or it could have been minutes. It was probably the latter. Funny, how time seems to slip away when it is replaced by darkness. I see the light get brighter and brighter as I step closer and closer. I wonder what it is.

I smell grass. I smell grass, stone, and sky. I live the smell of a fresh blue sky. I wonder where I am. What's that? It's a large tree. It has branches that hang low, but others that reach high into the sky. In the middle I see a boy. That boy is Arnold.

"Hey Minnie! Come on up here, the view is great!" Arnold shouts down at me with his hands cupped around his mouth to magnify his voice. Even though he is about halfway up the tree, he is at least twenty feet above my head. I see no other option than to climb up and join him. I scramble up the branches and just as my muscles begin to protest I am eye to eye with Arnold. He wraps his long fingers around my upper arm to boost me up. I soon sit next to him on a thick branch.

He asks how I got here and I explain how I wandered around and ended up repairing the key and walking through the hall. It turns out that Arnold was the one who broke the key. This is where he comes for privacy. We chat for a while and just enjoy each other's company. Oh my, I never thought that I would say that. We are talking about quidditch when he interrupts me. He asks me what I think of him. I sit with my mouth hanging open, my words about the quidditch finals last year had died in my mouth. Does he know that I used to dislike him? Does he know how I felt when he touched my hand yesterday?

As if in response he leans over and lightly kisses my cheek. "_That_ is what I think of _you_." He whispers in my ear. His breath tickles my face. I feel heat rising in my cheeks. I smile and reach for his hand, which he puts on my waist. I hold it there and stare straight into his eye, looking into his soul. I am not one of those girls with a pointless, obsessive infatuation with Arnold. He likes me back.

_This chapter is a little short, but I had a lot of fun writing it! I love this chapter! I wanted to have them charm the whomping willow, but that wasn't planted yet. Just imagine a tree as big as the whomping willow, but not deadly...unless you fall. if you have opinions or suggestions please tell me! Thank you!_

_Virtual hugs and love!_

_-Lucy Pensee_


	4. Chapter 4- I fall, in more ways than one

It has been a month since I found Arnold and the tree. Nobody knows yet about our relationship. I want to keep it that way for a little while. If people knew they might associate me with the person they think Arnold is. I may be the only person who really knows him.

It is almost Halloween, so the great hall is full of jack-o-lanterns. It is very festive, but festivities are in the back of my mind. I go to the tree every day when I want to be alone, which is often. I don't know exactly why I like alone time. Professor Dumbledore says that "all great wizards take refuge within themselves, but they are nothing without friends." He gives me a funny look as he says this. He must know about me and Arnold, but then again, Dumbledore know just about everything. I wonder if he knows about my past and my parent's history. My mum is a witch, but my dad is a muggle. Some would call me a half blood.

Quidditch try-outs were last week. Of course I made it onto the Gryffindor team. I am the captain and Arnold is the keeper. Cassandra doesn't like quidditch much. She is the girly type who thinks about boys and clothes. I am not like that, I am more athletic and I care about my classes. I wish I could tell her- or _someone_ -about Arnold, but this is the kind of information that Cassandra eats up and has trouble keeping to herself. She would never let me hear the end of it.

The tree looms imposingly before me. Arnold isn't with me this time, but I felt an impulse to come here. I often do things based more on instinct than reasoning. This is one of those things. I hurry to the base of the tree, scrambling through the roots that bulge out of the earth. I grasp a branch hanging inches above my head and hoist myself up. My body is lean and muscular from quidditch, so the climb up the tree is not a difficult one. Before I know it I am high enough up to see the forbidden forest stretching out in one direction as far as I could see. The view from up here is incredible. The sun has not set yet, but the sky has acquired an orangey tint and the clouds look swollen and pink. There is a gentle breeze that tousles my hair and caresses my face with soft hands. I am so relaxed that I drift off to sleep.

I awake to wind in my hair. This is no light breeze. I am falling. I realize too late that I won't have time to pull out my wand to retard my fall. If I don't do something I could die. I get my feet under me so that I at least won't land on my head. My fingers scrabble against the branches, trying desperately to grab on. I continue to fall. I can no longer catch myself; the branches are thin on this side of the tree. All of these thoughts run through my head in a few seconds. There is nothing I can do. I can't stop my fall.

I accept the fact that I will not escape without injury. The real question is whether I will be able to drag myself to the infirmary, or if I will have to wait until someone finds me? I close my eyes, but instead of pain I feel warm arms around me. Did I die? I try to open my eyes to find out, and I see Arnold's face inches from mine. He caught me. What perfect timing.

He laughs nervously and sets me on my feet. He says that he walked out of the tunnel just in time to see me slip from my perch up in the tree. I smile gratefully at him. I thank him over and over, but instead up responding he kisses me. This is the first real kiss we have had. His lips are comforting and I wrap my arms around him. He may have saved my life. Do I owe him? No, I tell myself. He was just doing what he saw fit in the situation. Then I think about how strong he must have been to catch me, what with my momentum and all. Then my attention goes back to our kiss and his gentle arms around me. We break apart and he takes my hand and leads me back to Gryffindor tower.

_Okay, so I know that this chapter is fluffy. I am still trying to acquaint myself with the frightening fact that sooner or later I will need to write something that will break my heart but fascinate my readers. Maybe tomorrow. Please understand how busy I am, in case I have to skip a you love my story then I send you virtual love. let me know what you think in the awesome little review box. Please and thank you!_

_- Lucy Pensee_


	5. Chapter 5- The First Game

I can feel my hands shaking at my sides. Why am I worrying? I must get put somewhere. The girl that I met on the train, Cassandra, says that she is sure we will both be in Ravenclaw together. I honestly have no idea. Oh dear, it's my turn. The headmaster, I did not catch his name, but it may have been Dippet, places the sorting hat on my neat curls. The hat is a horribly ugly thing. It is faded and wrinkled and patched. It has a large tear in the middle that looks almost like a mouth. The hat whispers to me, so quietly that nobody else could hear. I am still very nervous. I don't know what it will say. It mutters things about Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. I chew my lip and close my eyes. When I open them after what seems like either a few seconds or a few hours I see wide eyes and open mouths.

The sorting hat asks me if I have a preference. It tells me that I could belong in either house. I shake my head ever so slightly. Nobody except the hat could have noticed it. It groans a little and then clears its throat (do hats have throats?) and announces "GRYFFINDOR!" When I step off of the chair professor Dumbledore stops me and says quietly "Welcome to Hogwarts Minerva, Hatstall."

I awake with a start. On my very first night here at Hogwarts I was different. I was a hatstall. I had to have Professor Dumbledore explain to me what that was. During my sorting I hadn't realized that the hat was on my head for more than five minutes. A hatstall only occurs about every fifty years or so. Nobody in the great hall had ever met a hatstall in person before. This didn't make me any kind of celebrity or anything, just something for people to stare at when I'm not looking. My peers have long since stopped their insufferable attention-paying, but someone hasn't. Dumbledore.

Dumbledore treats me like I'm special. He always has and I reckon he always will. That's just the thing about him: he sees things that other people don't. He even sees thing in you that you don't see in yourself. I think that some people are just like that. They don't even need to get to know you before deciding the kind of person you are in their eyes. They just look straight into you head, your heart, your soul.

Why, you may ask, am I reminiscing in memories from years ago? That is my tactic to conquer nerves. Today is the first quidditch game of the season. I don't get nervous for quidditch games, I just don't. Except for the first and last games. I know that I am probably the best player on the team. When I went to tryouts in my first year I instantly was awarded the position of seeker. That almost never happens to a first year. I was made captain of the quidditch team at the end of my fifth year when Priscilla Marks, the previous captain, passed down the title at the end of her seventh year. I have remained captain of the team ever since, and I do not yet know who will become the next captain. That decision is one that I will make later, and with guidance.

I step onto the quidditch pitch. My jaw stiffens as the Slytherins come onto the field grinning. That can't be good. Maybe- hopefully- they are just trying to intimidate us. Our team is twice as skilled as theirs, but they are half as fair as we are. Sometimes the Slytherin team has been known to play dirty. I glance at the sky, then at the hoops, then at the leering face of Leighton Angelo, the captain of the Slytherin team. I try to read his face, as Dumbledore does to everyone, to no avail. He is focused. He is tired of losing to Gryffindor. Well, he will have to be grouchy for a while longer because I do not intend to lose.

I hop on my broom and shoot up into the air. I stay out of the way and scan the field for the tiny flash of gold that is the golden snitch. I spot it and take off. Darcy Witte, the Slytherin seeker, saw it too. He races towards me. Is this their new strategy, to focus more on us losing than them winning?

Darcy hurtles straight across the field, right in my path. I jerk the end of my broom and pull into a steep dive, shooting up when I reach less than five feet above the neat green grass. I zip past a beater and a chaser, not looking to see which team they are on. My brain can only think of one thing: _catch that snitch!_

I hear cheers rise from the stands as I fly right above their heads, as quiet as the sweet whisper of wind. My eyes are focused on the snitch. Blood pounds behind my ears and I can feel my pulse in every inch of my body. As the last second before I hit one of the risers that the headmaster happens to be sitting on, I zoom upward. The snitch is directly above me now. I am three feet away, two, and one. The world appears to be in slow motion when my fingers barely brush the golden wing of the snitch as in flies over my head. Then I do something amazing. I fly upside down and I catch the snitch.

I grasp it tightly in my gloved hand and smile at the crowd. The Gryffindor side of the stands is a swirling, churning mass of red and gold. I caught the snitch. We won the game. _I_ won. You cannot imagine how good this feels. Unless of course, you have won the first quidditch game that your team plays for the year. But I am assuming that you haven't.

Back in the Gryffindor common room there is a party. Someone brought butterbeer from the kitchen. Another charmed a muggle radio to play wizard music. I didn't know where exactly I was in the room because I was pressed between all of the bodies of my housemates. I was surrounded on all sides by an ocean of red and gold. Somehow Arnold managed to find me in the middle of the crowd. He grabbed my hand and led me away from the party. We went down a short flight of stairs, through a short hallway, and into a small closet-like room.

"You performed amazingly today," he complimented.

"So did you!" I reply, "I get most of the glory, but you do most of the work."

"You don't have to say that," he says, lowering his head and staring at his feet.

"I did because I meant it," I say. I lift his chin with my fingertips so that he is looking directly into my eyes.

He hugs me close to him and I can feel his heartbeat. He kisses me, slowly and softly, and I pull him down until we are sitting on the floor. I feel him smile against my lips and I smile too. This moment is perfect. I wish that it could last forever. If I got my wish then forever must be shorter than I thought. I get about twenty minutes of sitting in Arnold's lap with his arms around me and his soft lips kissing mine. After twenty too-short minutes I hear a shriek. I was far too distracted to hear someone come in. I don't want this to end though. Apparently neither does Arnold because he does not let me go. He doesn't even take his mouth away from mine. We don't stop until I hear a familiar voice:

"_Minerva? Arnold?_" An incredulous and entirely too familiar voice gasps, "_You_ two?"

It was Cassandra.

**_So I guess that that that was sort of a cliffie. I'm sorry, but I had to. I know that the end is a little fluffy, but that's how I like my fanfictions. Sometime soon there will be action, just not today. I'm also sorry that this took so long. The only computer that this story was saved on (with this patially completed chapter on it) was having problems. All is fine now though. Also, I was _****very****_ busy. Please forgive me and follow and review! I might take suggestions if you guys have them, and I definitely like to know what people think of my writing!_**

**_Virtual love!_**

**_- Lucy_**


	6. Chapter 6- Cassandra Finds Out

I turn toward Cassandra and see that her jaw is on the floor. I am not ashamed of my relationship with Arnold, so I do not step away from him. I think that I see tears filling Cassandra's wide eyes.

"Minerva, wha- why?" Cassandra stuttered.

"He's not as much of a jerk as you think he is." I reply.

"Gee, thanks for that Minnie." Arnold whispers in my ear. His warm breath sends shivers down my spine.

"No, I don't care who you choose kiss in a closet. I'm just upset that you haven't told me. I thought that I was your best friend. I thought that best friends told each other things like who they are dating. So, how long has this been going on?" She blinks away the tears before they get a chance to run down her cheeks. Her nose is turning pink and her hands are shaking at her sides.

"Not long. Well, I suppose that depends on your definition of long. Since… since the beginning of term." I cringe on the inside when I realize that that was a fairly long time. Especially to Cassandra, who thought that the great hall should serve meals between breakfast, lunch, and dinner because she didn't want to wait that long to eat. I feel like an absolute emotionless idiot. How could I not have known how sensitive Cassandra is? How could I not have known that she would be hurt by my not telling her about my first boyfriend? Wow, I'm in trouble.

Arnold lifted me off of his lap like I weighed no more than a hippogriff feather. Once on my feet I helped him up and went to take Cassandra's hand. I held hers in both of mine and squeeze it gently. I stare deep into her eyes, looking for her soul. Maybe if I stare long enough I can burn away her sadness. If only I could be like the superheroes in muggle comic books. I can't though. I can't erase my best friend's pain, no matter how much I want to.

"Cassandra, dear, you must believe that I was going to tell you, I ju-" I stammer out. Cassandra cuts me off.

"When, after we graduated? After you two ran away together and forgot about me?" Cassandra is on the verge of hysterics. The tears are back and openly flowing.

I can't help but wipe away Cassandra's tears and gather her into my arms. "I just didn't want to… I don't know what I was waiting for. I suppose I didn't want to be affiliated with the person that you think Arnold is. I wanted to change your impression of him before you knew about… about us. Please, Cassie you have to forgive me."

She pulled back from my hug and pushed my hair out of my face. In my peripheral vision I see Arnold back up a few steps and turn away. He can respect this best-friend moment. Cassie and I have been through so much together. We have been nearly inseparable since we met on the train on our first day at Hogwarts. I know that something like this won't ruin our friendship, but I also know that things will never be the same. At the most she won't sit next to me at dinner for the next week or so, and she won't share her chocolate frogs with me for at least another month. I can handle that though, because she will forgive me eventually.

"I forgive you Minerva." She whispers and turns away from me. Her back straightens and she marches to her dormitory.

I stumble to Arnold and into his arms. He half-carries me to the door of my dormitory. I hope that we were slow enough for Cassandra to be asleep. I turn to go in, but Arnold catches my arm. He puts his face very close to mine. Out lips are millimeters apart. He purses his lips so that they are barely touching mine. He whispers so softly that if I moved an inch I could not hear him, "Sweet dreams."

He turns away before I can reply and disappears into his dormitory.

**_Sorry for the fluffiness of this chapter, but... not sorry. I am sick and kind of bored. This chapter may have been fluffy and a little boring and soap-opera-ish. I assure you dear readers that this fanfic, like any great story, has to have some fluff to make the action seem more exciting. I won't be going to school tomorrow either, so maybe I will write another chapter. The thing is, I don't know what I will write about next. If you have any suggestions please leave them in a review and I will consider them. Seriously, I want to know what you think of my story. Have a lovely day and I hope you aren't as sick as me!_**

**_~Lucy Pensee_**


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